Ethics panel meets, after 66 week absence

The Joint Legislative Committee on Ethical Standards met Tuesday, for the first time in 467 days.

It didn’t actually rule on any of the five complaints before it. But just meeting was an event in itself, considering that the legislative session is more than half over. The meeting was the first since the panel was slimmed back from 16 members, half lawmakers and half from the public, to eight members without any legislators on the panel.

Half an hour was spent discussing a complaint filed by Steve Lonegan, now a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor, in June 2006 against now-Sen. Brian Stack, D-Hudson. The case revolves around whether Stack used an appropriation from the state budget for his personal benefit — a grant to a day-care center run by his estranged wife. A federal subpoena was served on Stack in 2007 seeking info on the matter, but no criminal charges have been brought.

Albert Porroni, who is executive director of the Office of Legislative Services and has been the Legislature’s chief legal officer since 1981, said the commission could deem the case “stale” and dismiss it, saying the length of time it has gone on is a disservice to Stack. He also said “as far as counsel knows” there is no evidence of an ongoing criminal investigation. Or it could, as Stack requested, put off a decision until next month. An annoyed Stack sought the delay because he didn’t receive an overnight letter mailed Feb. 17 until UPS delivered it yesterday morning at 10:40, just 3 hours 20 minutes before the meeting.

The panel chose to wait until next month. It also delayed action on or directed staff to start compiling info on complaints filed against four other lawmakers:

Former Sen. Wayne Bryant, D-Camden, who is currently appealing a federal conviction on corruption charges of using his legislative position to pad his pension through low-show jobs at agencies dependent on state budget support. The committee won’t reconsider that case until his appeal is concluded.

Assemblyman Joseph Vas, D-Middlesex, whose actions in the matter referenced in the ethics complaint — a 2006 land deal in which he sold an apartment to a developer who later got a $360,000 rehabilitation grant from Perth Amboy when Vas was mayor — are already being examined by federal investigators.

Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, D-Mercer, who sent a news release that (according to former Sen. Dick LaRossa, who filed the complaint) uses his legislative district for overtly election-related purposes.

Assemblyman Joseph Cryan, D-Union, accused of using his district office email account for political campaign purposes

In both the Gusciora and Cryan matters (filed in September and January, respectively), no actions were taken by OLS staffers to look into the matters — even though the news release and email in question weren’t actually submitted with the complaints. Porroni said that because the old committee was abolished in January 2008 and the new one wasn’t formally inaugurated, the office didn’t technically have the power to respond to those cases.

“Without this committee organized, we had no apparent authority to do anything,” Porroni said.

The panel also gave a green light, at least for now, to first-term Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini, R-Monmouth, who is the CEO and director of Prevention First, a nonprofit group that combats substance abuse that wants to (and has been) bidding on state grants. Because the contracts are publicly advertised and competitively bid, that seems to be OK — though the committee also wanted some more information about whether Angelini’s compensation is directly tied to whether the nonprofit gets state grants.

The meeting’s first 40 minutes were devoted to setting a meeting schedule for the rest of 2009 (the fourth Tuesday of every month, probably always at 1 p.m.) and adopting the committee’s operating procedures. Though some of the members of the panel want to tweak some of the rules, Porroni got them to adopt the already-drafted version in that form, rather than wait until the end of March, so that if (or when) complaints are filed in this Assembly election year, his staff can start acting on the case.

“I’m sure, but not hopeful, that we’re going to get some business between now and that point,” Porroni said.